Nesting bald eagles found, eggs to hatch near March 6

LORAIN -- A bald eagle nest in Huron County appears to have a pair of mated eagles that are sitting on eggs that could hatch on or about March 6, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced.

The Huron County pair traditionally lays eggs early, which can be good for the eaglets, said John Blakeman, a retired science teacher and raptor biologist from Huron.

Eaglets that hatch early and survive have more time to gain strength through the summer, which helps the birds live through the following winter, Blakeman said.

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Part of the eagles' success is due to modern transportation as the eagles eat deer killed by cars, he said.

"That's just a winter's worth of meat," Blakeman said.

"That's the real story: These birds are nesting in the wintertime," he said. "They would have never done that in presettlement times," because water would be frozen, making food scarce.

Eagles also appear to build nests farther away from Lake Erie or major streams, which provide fish, their primary food, he said.

"The key thing is the birds have learned to adapt to the modern world," Blakeman said. "This is not Ben Franklin's bald eagle. They adapted to the modern world more than anyone could have imagined."

State officials log two nests in Lorain County, said Gary Gerrone, naturalist at the French Creek Nature Center.

Bald eagle sightings have become a daily occurrence at Lorain County Metro Parks' Sandy Ridge Reservation in North Ridgeville, Gerrone said.

"And good looks, too," Gerrone said. "It's not just an incredibly distant bird or a quick fly-by. It's really a place where they can call home."

He predicted Lorain County has natural areas that make the county ready for an eagle boom.

"Since the late '70s, the bald eagles have really made a turnaround," Gerrone said. "It wouldn't surprise me this year, in the next couple of years, we see more in Lorain County. Bald eagles are doing great."

Blakeman estimated Ohio now has up to 1,200 bald eagles, made up of 150 nesting pairs and the remaining "floaters" that have not nested and mated. Another nesting pair is believed to have eggs in Ashtabula County this year, according to state officials.

In contrast, Blakeman recalled the winter of 1978 and watching a tree holding one of Ohio's last bald eagle nests crash onto the frozen Sandusky Bay.

"I walked out there and I wept, figuring for sure I had seen the last nest in this part of Erie County, in this part of Ohio," Blakeman said.

The next question the bird observers will puzzle about is when Ohio will become "saturated" with bald eagles, Blakeman said. Red-tailed hawks have a higher first-year mortality rate than eagles because their population has boomed and must compete for food, he said.

"When will there be saturation? When will they be filled up?" Blakeman said. "We don't know."